The phrase is modest almost to the point of inscrutability, but it points to a category of find that regularly surfaces across Irish landscapes, the physical remnant of intense, localised burning, the kind of deposit that can signal anything from industrial activity to ritual practice to the disposal of domestic waste.

The spread was uncovered and fully excavated by archaeologist Alan Hayden in 1993, under licence reference 93E0001, in an area of the site designated Area IV. Complete excavation of such a deposit is significant; it means the feature was not simply sampled or recorded in section but removed in its entirety, allowing the full extent and character of the burnt material to be documented. Burnt spreads of this kind are not uncommon in Irish prehistoric and early historic contexts, and their interpretation depends heavily on what the burning itself consisted of, whether charred bone, wood ash, heat-shattered stone, or combinations of all three. Without further published detail from the excavation, the Killincarrig spread sits in that familiar archaeological category of the carefully recorded but not yet fully explained.